EA pulls SimCity from Indian Origin store following technical exploit

EA has removed SimCity from the Indian Origin Store after users outside India found a technical loophole that allowed them to purchase the game at a significantly lower price.

Due to a technical exploit that is being abused by some users, EA has had to temporarily remove SimCity from the Origin Store in India,” EA India posted on its Facebook page earlier today.

We’re working to make the game available to you once again as soon as possible. In the interim, customers in India can still pick up a copy at retail stores,” the Facebook post added.

SimCity was being sold on the Origin Store in India for Rs 1,499, which is around 27 USD. Most new PC games are released in India at Rs 999.

Several websites, including the Australian editions of Kotaku and Gizmodo published information on how users could get the game cheap from the Indian Origin Store with a couple of tweaks”.

This isn’t the first time users outside India have exploited the Indian Origin Store to get games cheap. A similar technical loophole was exploited during the release of Battlefield 3 Premium.

EA had subsequently removed that game and re-released it later at a higher price, in line with other stores.

While Steam does not lower its prices for Indian users, Origin has so far kept the prices for its digital releases at par with retail pricing. But with such exploits being used regularly by non-Indians, you would have to wonder how long it will be before EA decides to cut its losses and raise prices on the Indian Origin Store for all new releases.